Curator's Introduction

John Moody's nine Stations (these nine were developed in 1958 as part of the Prayer Book revision by the Rev. Massey H. Shepherd for the Associated Parishes), all in mixed media, are meant not as illustrations of Biblical themes. John writes: "They are vignettes from nature, branches that I have glimpsed in trees and bushes which in their shape and silhouette lead me in, as it were, like an icon to participate in their being and therefore all being." With the beginning of the twentieth century many artists in the West began experimenting with abstraction. No longer were impressions of reality satisfactory. Though other cultures had used non-representational visual art as a way of portraying the essence of reality for generations, this was something new for Europe and America. Many were the causes, but a key influence was the horror of the First World War. Mankind saw that it had the ability to destroy not only human beings but also the beauty of the natural order. Its bombs and gases created a hell on earth. Many were those crucified on the pillars of economics and politics. Rendering a tree in full flowering or a human in full bloom, brought with it the memory of all the landscapes destroyed and all the young men and women mutilated. Meaning was to be found in abstraction or in the essence of things; or in the multi-faceted dimensionality of the cube, the face, the violin. Things were no longer as simple as they had seemed. We now knew that what was done to Jesus, we were doing to each other. Many were searching for a new access to God and for them non-representational art was the route. The value of abstraction is evidenced nearly a century later as John follows in its path trying through his Stations to open "doorways to meditation."

Artist Information

The images of trees in nature, seen either entire or in part, for me reflect in an uncanny way upon the human condition. As trees grow they acquire an identity which is individual. They have been rooted in a particular place and time. They must adapt, compensate and relate to all that grows near them and shares the climate with them in order to live our their created nature (their oakness or mapleness) and seek to thrive. Their identity and being is forged in relationship and the twists and turns of their branches are a record of a kind of dance with all creation and a part of its interdependence.

The images I have included are for nine stations of The Way of the Cross, a form of the devotion developed by the Rev. Massey H. Shepherd, Jr. for the Associated Parishes in 1958. this was at a time when the Episcopal Church was in the process of recalling and reclaiming many of the usuages of the early and medieval church. This was all part of the revision of the Book of Common Prayer.
These Stations are not illustrative but are meant to be doorways to meditation. They are vignettes from nature, branches that I have glimpsed in trees and bushes which in their shape and silhouette lead me in, as it were, like an icon to participate in their being and therefore all being.

These images can stand on their own, untitled, singly or together, but as Stations they receive and, I hope, participate in the power of the purpose of devotion.

These piece, all mixed media on wood or board, vary somewhat in size in the of 16-26” x12-24.” All were executed in 2001-2002.
I am an Episcopal Priest in the Diocese of New York and an artist residing in New York City. I attend the Church of St. Luke in the Fields.